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MISSIONARY  HEROES  COURSE 

LIFE  STORIES  OF  GREAT  MISSIONARIES  FOR 

TEEN  AGE  BOYS 

ARRANGED  IN  PROGRAMS 


Alexander  Duff 

India’s  Educational  Pioneer 


SOURCE  BOOK 

“ALEXANDER  DUFF,  PIONEER  OF 
MISSIONARY  EDUCATION” 

By  WILLIAM  PATON 


Program  Prepared  ip 

FLOYD  L.  CARR 


Baptist  Board  of  Education 

DEPARTMENT  OF  MISSIONARY  EDUCATION 

276  FIFTH  AVENUE,  NEW  YORK  CITY 


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Course  No. 


Alexander  Duff 

India's  Educational  Pioneer 


SOURCE  BOOK 

“Alexander  Duff,  Pioneer  of  Missionar 

Education” 

By  William  Paton 


Baptist  Board  of  Education 

DEPARTMENT  OF  MISSIONARY  EDUCATION 

276  Fifth  Avenue,  New  York  City 


OUTLINE 


Page 


Introductory  Statement 
Program  for  Meeting  . 


2 

3 

4 
7 


Life  Sketch  ... 
Life  Incidents 


Program  based  upon  Alexander  Duff,  Pioneer  of 

Missionary  Education 

by  William  Paton 


Doran,  $1.50 
FOREWORD 


HE  Missionary  Heroes  Course  for  Boys  meets  a  real  need. 


1  It  is  a  series  of  missionary  programs  for  boys  based  on  great 
biographies  which  every  boy  should  know.  Courses  Number 
One  and  Number  Two  are  now  available,  each  providing  pro¬ 
grams  for  twelve  months,  which  may  be  used  in  the  monthly 
meetings  of  boys’  groups.  Other  courses  are  in  preparation  and 
will  be  issued  for  subsequent  years. 

It  is  suggested  that  the  leader  purchase  two  copies  of  each 
booklet ;  one  to  be  kept  for  reference  and  the  other  to  be  cut  up 
to  provide  each  boy  with  his  assigned  part.  Some  may  prefer 
to  purchase  one  booklet  and  typewrite  the  parts  for  assignment. 
In  order  to  tie  together  the  life  incidents  as  they  are  presented 
by  the  boys,  the  leader  should  master  the  facts  outlined  in  the 
biographical  sketch  and  read  carefully  the  volume  upon  which 
the  program  is  based.  These  volumes  are  missionary  classics 
and  may  be  made  the  basis  of  a  worthwhile  library  of  Christian 
adventure. 

Boys  are  keenly  interested  in  stories  of  adventure  and  achieve¬ 
ment  and  it  is  hoped  that  participation  in  the  programs  will  lead 
many  of  the  lads  to  read  these  great  missionary  biographies.  At¬ 
tention  is  called  to  the  twenty-three  other  life-story  programs  now 
available  for  Courses  Number  One  and  Number  Two,  both  of 
which  are  listed  on  the  last  page.  The  books  upon  which  these 
programs  are  based  can  be  ordered  from  the  nearest  literature 
headquarters.  Portraits  of  these  missionary  heroes  are  also  avail¬ 
able  for  purchase  at  fifteen  cents  a  copy. 

While  these  programs  have  been  developed  to  meet  the  needs 
of  boys’  organizations  of  all  types — i.e.,  Organized  Classes,  Boy 
Scouts,  Knights  of  King  Arthur,  Kappa  Sigma  Pi,  etc., — they 
were  especially  prepared  for  the  chapters  of  the  Royal  Ambas¬ 
sadors ,  a  missionary  organization  for  teen  age  boys  originating 
in  the  Southland  and  recently  adapted  to  the  needs  of  the  North¬ 
ern  Baptist  Convention  by  the  Department  of  Missionary  Edu¬ 
cation.  We  commend  these  materials  to  all  lovers  of  boys. 


William  A.  Hill. 


PROGRAM  FOR  MEETING 


1.  Scripture  Reading:  Psalm  107:23-32:  “They  that  go  down 
to  the  sea  in  ships,  that  do  business  in  great  waters ;  these 
see  the  works  of  the  Lord  .  .  .  .  ’  ’  ( Tell  the  story  of  his  being 
shipwrecked  with  the  loss  of  800  books.  Two  only  were 
recovered,  a  Scottish  Psalter  and  the  Bible.  See  pages  54-55 
of  “Alexander  Duff,  Pioneer  of  Missionary  Education”  by 
William  Paton,  and  excerpt  No.  7  following.) 

2.  Prayer. 

3.  Hymn:  “We’ve  a  Story  to  Tell  to  the  Nations,”  which  is 
to  be  found  in  the  Leader’s  Packet.  (See  the  account  of  his 
decision  for  missionary  service,  pages  44-45,  49-50,  in  the 
above  book  and  excerpt  No.  6,  following.) 

4.  Introduction  to  the  Life-Story*  (based  upon  the  sketch  in 
this  booklet.) 

5.  His  Birth  and  Religious  Heritage  (pages  20-22.) 

6.  Decision  for  Missionary  Service  (pages  44-45,  49-50.) 

7.  Twice  Shipwrecked  (pages  52-54,  56.) 

8.  His  Educational  Program  has  William  Carey’s  Support 
(pages  58-60,  67.) 

9.  Alexander  Duff’s  First  Converts  (pages  84-86.) 

10.  Duff’s  Stand  is  Sustained  (pages  91-92,  98-99.) 

11.  Advocacy  of  Western  Medical  Science  (pages  99-100.) 

12.  Advocacy  of  Educational  Opportunities  for  India’s  Woman¬ 
hood  (pages  123-125.) 

13.  Secures  the  Adoption  of  the  “Grant-in-Aid”  System  (pages 
157,  159,  160.) 

34.  Failing  Strength  and  Death  (pages  194-195,  195-196.) 


*  The  leader  should  read  both  the  brief  sketch  in  this  pamphlet  and,  if  possible, 
the  book,  “Alexander  Duff,  Pioneer  of  Missionary  Education,”  by  William  Paton. 
A  splendid  short  sketch  of  Alexander  Duff  can  be  found  in  “Some  Great  Leaders  in 
the  World  Movement,”  by  Robert  E.  Speer. 


3 


SKETCH  OF  THE  LIFE  OF 
ALEXANDER  DUFF 

LEXANDER  DUFF  was  born  in  Moulin,  Perthshire,  Scot- 


ii  land,  on  April  25,  1806.  His  father  and  mother  were  devout 
Christian  workers,  the  father  being  active  in  conducting  Sunday 
schools  and  prayer  meetings.  His  preparatory  schooling  was 
received  at  Kirkmichael  and  Perth  and  his  college  work  at  St. 
Andrews  University.  His 'friendship  with  John  Urquhart  and  his 
contact  with  Thomas  Chalmers  were  the  formative  influences  that 
led  him  to  decide  for  missionary  service.  He  writes  of  his  de¬ 
cisions:  “In  my  closet  I  said:  '0  Lord,  silver  and  gold  have  I 
none.  What  I  have  I  give.  I  offer  Thee  myself.  Wilt  Thou 
accept  the  gift?’  ” 

The  Presbyterian  Assembly  appointed  him  as  its  first  mis¬ 
sionary  designated  to  India.  Shortly  after  receiving  his  appoint¬ 
ment,  he  was  married  to  Ann  Scott  Drysdale  of  Edinburgh.  They 
sailed  for  Calcutta  on  the  “Lady  Holland”  on  October  14,  1829. 
When  off  the  African  coast,  not  far  from  Cape  Town,  they  were 
shipwrecked,  with  the  loss  of  his  library  and  supplies.  The  only 
books  recovered  of  his  library  of  eight  hundred  volumes  were 
the  Scottish  Psalter  and  the  Bible.  Later,  their  second  ship  en¬ 
countered  a  monsoon  and  was  blown  aground  on  the  Hooghly 
River.  They  finally  were  royally  welcomed  to  Calcutta  on  May 
27,  1830. 

From  the  first,  Alexander  Duff  set  about  blazing  a  new  trail 
in  the  task  of  Christian  missions.  Two  new  and  vital  decisions 
were  involved  in  his  program.  First,  he  proposed  to  undermine 
Hinduism  not  by  devoting  his  life  to  preaching  but  by  making 
use  of  higher  education  as  a  missionary  instrument.  Second,  he 
proposed,  in  contrast  to  the  existing  practice  of  using  the  ver¬ 
nacular  as  the  medium  of  instruction,  to  give  that  higher  educa¬ 
tion  through  the  medium  of  the  English  language.  Only  William 
Carey  of  all  the  leaders  supported  him  in  his  revolutionary 
program. 

He  supplemented  his  educational  program  with  courses  of 
lectures  on  philosophy,  ethics,  government  and  Christianity.  He 
frankly  and  consistently  shaped  the  courses  of  instruction  toward 
Christian  principles  and  truths.  The  Bible  was  exalted  and 


4 


Jesus  Christ  earnestly  presented  to  his  students.  With  the 
assistance  of  Raja  Ram  Mohan  Roy,  he  enrolled  the  very  flower 
of  the  young  men  of  India,  opening  his  school  on  July  13,  1830, 
two  months  after  his  arrival.  By  April  1833  he  had  baptized 
four  notable  converts  from  Hinduism,  each  of  whom  was  destined 
for  large  leadership. 

He  became  the  dominant  personality  in  shaping  the  new 
policy  of  the  British  Government  in  India.  Instead  of  deferring 
absolutely  to  the  Hindu  customs,  religion  and  viewpoint,  with 
the  assistance  of  Lord  Macaulay,  he  secured  the  promotion  of 
European  science  and  literature.  He  aided  in  securing  the  estab¬ 
lishment  in  1835  of  the  Medical  College  at  Calcutta  on  the  foun¬ 
dation  of  western  medical  science. 

After  five  years  of  intense  and  effectual  labor  in  India,  ill- 
health  compelled  Duff  to  return  to  Scotland.  He  was  able  to 
render  as  great  a  service  for  missions  in  Scotland  as  he  had 
already  rendered  in  India.  He  was  invited  to  address  the  Gen¬ 
eral  Assembly  in  May,  1835.  He  aroused  his  hearers  to  new  con¬ 
viction  and  enthusiasm  concerning  the  cause  of  missions.  Twenty 
thousand  copies  of  his  epoch-making  address  were  ordered 
printed  for  distribution  in  the  churches.  The  four  years  at  home 
were  spent  in  stimulating  the  churches,  organizing  the  Presby¬ 
teries,  enlisting  able  volunteers,  lecturing  in  the  Universities  and 
in  preparing  a  volume  entitled :  ‘  *  India  and  Indian  Missions. 7  7 

In  1839,  leaving  his  four  children  with  friends,  he  again 
sailed  for  Calcutta  with  Mrs.  Duff.  Eleven  years  of  magnificent 
service  now  follow.  He  was  greeted  by  a  student  body  of  over 
six  hundred  and  was  rejoiced  to  mark  on  every  hand  the  fruitage 
of  his  earlier  labors.  In  Cornwallis  Square,  a  handsome  Chris¬ 
tian  Church  had  been  erected  and  the  Medical  College  was  firmly 
established  in  the  life  of  the  city.  Four  years  after  his  return, 
the  historic  disruption  of  the  Scottish  Church  took  place.  The 
issue  was  the  age-long  problem  of  “Church  and  State, 77  with 
especial  reference  to  the  authority  of  the  civil  courts  in  ecclesias¬ 
tical  matters.  Under  the  leadership  of  Thomas  Chalmers,  five 
hundred  congregations  withdrew  from  the  Established  Church, 
forming  the  Free  Church.  Duff  and  his  colleagues  decided  to 
affiliate  with  the  Free  Church  and  were  obliged  to  relinquish 
their  building  and  seek  new  quarters.  In  spite  of  the  handicap, 
the  work  prospered  and  notable  converts  were  constantly  being 
won.  In  October,  1848,  the  Bengali  Church  of  Calcutta  was  or¬ 
ganized  and  the  foundations  assured  for  an  indigenous  church 
in  India.  Two  other  contributions  to  Christian  progress  mark 
the  period,  the  editing  of  the  “Calcutta  Review77  and  the  found¬ 
ing  of  the  Calcutta  Hospital. 


5 


Ill  health  again  necessitated  a  return  to  Scotland.  After 
making  a  tour  of  the  Christian  centers  in  India,  he  sailed  for 
Scotland  in  the  spring  of  1850.  He  threw  himself  with  ardor 
into  the  task  of  stimulating  and  organizing  the  Free  Church,  with 
whose  fortunes  he  had  cast  his  lot.  He  secured  permission  to 
organize  a  missionary  association  in  every  Church  and  gave 
himself  whole-heartedly  to  the  task.  In  1851  he  was  elected 
Moderator  of  the  Free  Church  Assembly  and  ably  filled  the  posi¬ 
tion.  In  1854  he  made  a  triumphant  tour  of  the  cities  of  the 
United  States  and  Canada  and  profoundly  stimulated  mission¬ 
ary  enthusiasm  in  America. 

On  October  13,  1855,  he  sailed  in  his  forty-ninth  year  for  his 
last  term  of  service  in  India.  He  was  welcomed  to  Calcutta  with 
a  great  demonstration,  honored  as  the  prime  mover  in  the 
“  Grant-in- Aid" 7  educational  system  that  had  just  been  inaugu¬ 
rated  by  the  British  Government.  Two  years  after  his  arrival, 
India  experienced  the  horrors  of  the  Sepoy  Rebellion  and  Duff 
both  encouraged  his  fellow  countrymen  and  rejoiced  in  the 
steadfastness  and  courage  of  the  Christian  converts  under  the 
terrible  storm  of  persecution.  A  new  building,  known  as  “Duff 
College”  was  erected  and  a  steady  enlistment  of  notable  con¬ 
verts  was  the  outcome  of  the  work. 

After  eight  years  of  strenuous  service,  Alexander  Duff  sailed 
from  India  for  the  last  time.  Shortly  after  reaching  Scotland,  he 
was  elected  Chairman  of  the  Foreign  Missions  Committee  of  the 
Free  Church.  From  this  vantage  point  he  surveyed  the  “home 
base”  and  devoted  fourteen  years  of  his  life  to  lecturing  and 
organizing  in  behalf  of  the  growing  wrork  of  the  Free  Church  in 
India  and  Africa.  But  in  his  seventieth  year  he  fell  from  a  con¬ 
siderable  height  in  his  library,  severely  injuring  his  head.  A 
tumor  formed  and  months  of  increasing  weakness  followed.  On 
February  12,  1878,  the  great  Christian  educator  passed  to  his 
reward.  Shortly  after  his  death,  Gladstone  paid  this  tribute  to 
him:  “He  is  one  of  the  noble  army  of  the  confessors  of  Christ.” 


6 


INCIDENTS  IN  THE  LIFE  OF 
ALEXANDER  DUFF 

Reprinted  from  “ Alexander  Duff,  Pioneer  of  Missionary 
Education,”  by  William  Patou. 

by  permission  of  the  publishers,  George  H.  Doran  Company 

His  Birth  and  Religious  Heritage.  ( Pp .  20-22.) 

Alexander  Duff  was  born  in  the  little  parish  of  Moulin,  in 
Perthshire,  on  April  25th,  1806.  The  place  lies  at  the  very  cen¬ 
tre  of  Scotland,  and  enjoys  a  beauty  of  scenery  and  wealth  of 
historical  memory  which  could  not  but  leave  their  impress  on  one 
who  to  his  dying  day  was  enthusiastically  a  Scot  and  a  High¬ 
lander.  Two  miles  to  the  north  is  Ben-i-vrackie,  from  which  far 
away  can  be  seen  Arthur’s  Seat,  above  Edinburgh,  and  to  the 
north  the  great  mountains  Ben  Nevis  and  Ben  Macdhui.  Not  far 
distant  the  Pass  of  Killiecrankie  calls  up  memories  of  Scottish 
history,  and  of  “bloody  Claverhouse”  and  the  Covenanters  he 
hunted  down,  into  whose  spiritual  heritage  the  young  Duff  so 
eagerly  stepped.  This  early  memory  of  mountain,  glen  and  river 
never  faded  from  Duff’s  mind,  and  again  and  again  in  the 
imaginative  flights  of  his  speeches  we  find  the  impress  of  this 
Highland  loveliness  and  grandeur  and  perceive  the  love  he  had 
for  his  fatherland. 

Of  his  father,  James  Duff,  and  his  mother,  who  was  Jean 
Pattray,  we  do  not  know  much  beyond  what  their  son,  who 
believed  himself  to  owe  everything  to  them,  tells  us  about  his 
parents.  They  were  people  of  passionate  religious  faith,  of  the 
rugged  Calvinist  type,  tinged  both  with  the  fire  and  with  the  sad¬ 
ness  of  the  Celtic  nature.  The  father,  says  his  son,  “was  wont 
to  labour  much  for  the  spiritual  improvement  of  his  neighbor¬ 
hood,  by  the  keeping  or  superintending  of  Sabbath  schools,  and 
the  holding  of  weekly  meetings  at  his  own  house  or  elsewhere, 
for  prayer  and  scriptural  exposition  ....  In  prayer  he  was 
indeed  mighty — appearing  at  times  as  if  in  a  rapture  ....  In 
appealing  to  the  conscience,  and  in  expatiating  on  the  dying  love 
of  the  Saviour,  he  displayed  a  power  before  which  many  have 
been  melted  and  subdued,  and  being  equally  fluent  in  the  Gaelic 
and  the  English  languages,  he  could  readily  adapt  himself  to  the 
requirements  of  such  mixed  audiences  as  the  Highlands  usually 
furnish.’*  His  mind  was  steeped  in  the  Bible  expositions  of  the 
old  divines,  and  he  familiarized  his  children  with  them.  Although 

7 


Duff  left  home  to  go  to  school  at  the  age  of  eight  and  was  only 
intermittently  under  his  father’s  roof  ever  afterwards,  there  is 
no  doubt  that  his  father’s  piety  and  personal  religious  forceful¬ 
ness  left  a  profound  impression  on  his  nature. 

a 

Indirectly,  but  not  on  that  account  less  truly,  Alexander  Duff 
entered  as  a  child  into  the  heritage  of  the  great  evangelical  re¬ 
vival  associated  with  the  name  of  Charles  Simeon.  For  the  boy’s 
father,  so  mighty  in  prayer  and  exposition,  so  strenuous  in  ser¬ 
vice,  looked  back  to  his  first  awakening  to  the  realities  of  God 
under  the  ministry  of  a  man  deeply  influenced  by  Simeon — Dr. 
Stewart  of  Moulin,  afterwards  of  Dingwall  and  Canongate.  Alex¬ 
ander  ’s  mother  too  could  recall  how,  as  girl  and  boy  of  seventeen, 
she  and  young  James  Duff,  her  future  husband,  had  sat  one  Sab¬ 
bath  in  the  little  kirk  of  Moulin  under  a  strange  preacher  from 
England,  a  soldierly  man,  very  fervent  in  his  speech  in  spite  of 
his  look  of  tiredness,  and  wonderfully  hard  to  understand  on 
account  of  the  outlandishness  of  his  tongue.  But  Dr.  Stewart, 
a  listener  that  Sabbath  instead  of  preacher,  had  understood  the 
queer  accent  and  the  queer  words,  and  that  day’s  sermon  had 
somehow  set  him,  a  quiet  country  minister,  on  fire  with  a  new 
and  passionate  conviction  of  God  and  sin  and  salvation,  which 
would  not  let  him  rest  until  James  and  Jean  and  the  other  mem¬ 
bers  of  his  flock  saw  what  he  now  saw,  as  Simeon  had  showed 
him,  of  God  and  His  love  for  men.  Many  years  after,  Duff,  by 
now  an  experienced  missionary,  met  Simeon  at  Cambridge,  and 
reminded  him  of  his  visit  to  Moulin  in  1796  and  of  the  “  barren 
and  dry  sermon”  (so  Simeon  himself  had  dismissed  it  at  the 
time)  which  had  had  so  powerful  an  effect  on  the  kirk  of  Moulin 
and,  through  his  parents,  on  the  missionary  himself. 

Decision  for  Missionary  Service.  (Pp.  49-50.) 

Characteristically,  Duff  took  a  long  time  to  make  up  his  mind 
on  the  pressing  question,  should  he  become  a  missionary.  Inter¬ 
est  in  India  particularly,  he  said  at  the  end  of  his  Indian  career, 
began  in  his  case  with  the  reading  of  an  article  on  India  in  the 
Edinburgh  Encyclopaedia ;  but  even  in  his  childhood  his  father, 
who  had  an  interest  in  missionary  work  rare  in  those  days,  used 
to  speak  to  him  of  it  and  show  him  pictures  of  Indian  life  and 
religious  rites.  As  a  member  of  the  students’  Missionary  Society 
he  read  all  round  the  subject.  He  tried  to  rid  himself  of  any 
romantic  glamour  which  the  work  might  have  had  for  him,  and 
compelled  himself  to  face  two  things,  the  actual  work  and  need 
in  India,  and  the  claim  of  the  Gospel  upon  the  individual  Chris¬ 
tian.  He  subjected  his  own  motives  to  a  rigorous,  even  ruthless 
scrutiny,  purged  himself  so  far  as  a  man  can  of  self-deceit  and 


8 


false  ambition,  looked  squarely  and  steadily  at  the  cost  he  must 
count,  and  came  to  that  place  where  he  could  say,  “Here  am  I, 
send  me.” 

In  1827  Urquhart,  whose  strength  had  never  been  equal  to 
the  demands  he  made  upon  it,  died,  before  reaching  his  nine¬ 
teenth  birthday.  This  seems  to  have  been  the  determining  factor 
in  Duff  ’s  decision.  Urquhart ’s  name  was  always  much  in  his 
talk  and  letters,  but  when  he  returned  home  in  the  spring  of 
1827,  in  all  his  news  about  College  affairs  and  friendships  Urqu¬ 
hart ’s  name  did  not  appear.  In  answer  to  his  parents’  question 
he  told  them  that  Urquhart  had  passed  away,  and  then  added, 
“What  if  your  son  should  take  up  his  cloak?  You  approved  the 
motive  that  directed  the  choice  of  Urquhart,  you  commended  his 
high  purpose — The  cloak  is  taken  up.”  His  parents  accepted  the 
decision.  They  had  counted  on  his  being  a  minister  at  home, 
perhaps  near  themselves,  and  they  had  all  the  old  Scottish  pride 
in  having  a  son,  and  a  distinguished  son,  in  the  ministry.  Never¬ 
theless,  they  were  able  to  recognize  in  their  son’s  decision  the 
will  of  God  .... 

I  am  now  prepared  to  reply  to  the  Committee  in  the  words 
of  the  Prophet,  “Here  am  I,  send  me.”  The  work  is  most 
arduous,  but  is  of  God,  and  must  prosper ;  many  sacrifices  painful 
to  “flesh  and  blood”  must  be  made,  but  not  any  correspondent 
to  the  glory  of  winning  souls  for  Christ.  With  the  thought  of 
this  glory,  I  feel  myself  almost  transported  with  joy,  everything 
else  appears  to  fall  out  of  view  as  vain  and  insignificant.  The 
kings  and  great  men  of  the  earth  have  reared  the  sculptured 
monument  and  the  lofty  pyramid  with  the  vain  hope  of  trans¬ 
mitting  their  names  with  reverence  to  succeeding  generations ; 
and  yet  the  sculptured  monument  and  the  lofty  pyramid  do 
crumble  unto  decay,  and  must  finally  be  burnt  up  in  the  general 
wreck  of  dissolving  nature;  but  he  who  has  been  the  means  of 
subduing  one  soul  to  the  Cross  of  Christ,  hath  reared  a  far  more 
enduring  monument — a  monument  that  will  outlast  all  time, 
and  survive  the  widespread  ruins  of  ten  thousand  worlds ;  a 
trophy  which  is  destined  to  bloom  and  flourish  in  immortal  youth 
in  the  land  of  immortality. 

f. 

Twice  Shipwrecked.  (Pp.  52-54,  56.) 

The  Lady  Holland ,  after  several  attempts  to  start,  left  Ryde 
in  the  Isle  of  Wight  on  October  14th,  1829.  Before  braving  the 
Channel  after  a  heavy  gale  a  derelict  vessel  was  encountered 
swept  from  stem  to  stern  by  the  waves ;  a  sailor ’s  omen  which 
the  event  was  to  prove  in  this  case  at  least  true  enough.  Con¬ 
trary  winds  kept  the  ship  from  making  rapid  progress,  and  it 


9 


was  not  until  November  7th  that  they  reached  Madeira,  where 
the  captain  purposed  to  stay  a  week  to  take  in  a  cargo  of  wine. 
Of  the  twenty-two  passengers,  the  only  one  of  note,  other  than 
Duff,  was  H.  M.  Durand,  a  young  engineer  who  became  a  close 
friend  of  Duff,  and  eventually  rose  in  the  service  until  he  became 
Lieutenant-Governor  of  the  Punjab.  In  Madeira  the  Duffs  found 
themselves  hospitably  treated  by  the  ship’s  agent,  and  among  the 
people  then  in  the  island  became  acquainted  with  Captain  Marr- 
yat,  who  was  in  command  of  one  of  the  frigates  in  the  Bay.  Their 
stay  in  Madeira,  however,  was  to  be  longer  than  they  expected, 
as  a  big  gale  blew  most  of  the  ships  in  the  Bay  out  to  sea,  includ¬ 
ing  all  the  frigates,  and  for  three  weeks  they  were  compelled  to 
wait  until  the  vessels  made  their  way  back.  Eventually  on  De¬ 
cember  3rd,  the  Lady  Holland  set  sail  for  the  Cape,  accompanied 
by  a  frigate  which  was  on  the  look-out  for  pirates.  That  the 
precaution  was  a  real  one  was  shown  by  the  next  experience 
which  befell  the  passengers,  of  seeing  the  attendant  frigate  in 
full  pursuit  of  a  pirate  a  few  hundred  yards  away  from  the 
Lady  Holland. 

The  southeast  trade  wind  took  the  ship  close  to  Buenos  Ayres, 
but  early  in  February,  1830,  she  drew  near  to  the  African  coast, 
her  captain  intending  to  call  at  the  Cape.  On  the  13th,  in  the 
endeavour  to  avoid  a  sandbank  on  which  the  captain  had  found, 
by  soundings,  that  he  was  moving,  the  Lady  Holland  crashed 
upon  some  rocks  and  broke  her  back,  so  that  the  fore  part  of 
the  ship  stuck  between  the  reefs.  It  was  ten  o’clock  at  night 
when,  as  was  usual  in  those  days,  the  lights  had  been  put  out  and 
the  passengers  were  mostly  asleep  in  their  berths.  Duff,  half- 
dressed,  rushed  on  deck  to  find  the  captain  in  an  agony  of  des¬ 
pair,  for  the  condition  of  the  ship  was  hopeless.  The  order  was 
given  for  the  masts  to  be  cut  away,  and  the  long-boat  to  be  got 
ready,  in  case  it  should  be  possible  to  leave  the  wreck.  Meanwhile 
the  passengers  had  all  assembled  in  the  officers’  cabin,  some  calm 
and  untroubled,  some  in  agonies  of  terror,  some  repenting  of  their 
past  lives  and  crying  aloud  to  God  for  pity.  Duff  himself  records 
how  all  the  little  cliques  and  feuds  that  so  easily  grow  up  among 
passengers  in  a  long  voyage  resolved  themselves  in  this  hour  of 
fear,  and  after  half  an  hour,  when  the  first  tempest  of  appre¬ 
hensions  had  subsided,  he  was  able  to  lead  the  passengers  in 
prayer  for  the  safety  of  the  crew  and  themselves. 

Meanwhile  a  small  gig  had  been  sent  out  to  discover  any 
possible  landing-place,  for  all  round  the  Lady  Holland  was  a 
mass  of  foaming  water  and  it  was  not  known  whether  she  had 
struck  on  an  island,  or  on  the  mainland,  or  on  isolated  rocks. 
After  some  time  the  boat  returned  with  the  news  that  a  small 
sandy  bay  had  been  found,  to  which  it  should  be  possible  to 


10 


escape.  The  long-boat  would  only  accommodate  one-third  of  the 
entire  ship ’s  complement,  but  the  wind  had  by  this  time  abated, 
and  eventually  all  were  safely  got  ashore  .... 

Near  the  end  of  May  they  passed  up  the  Bay  of  Bengal,  took 
on  the  pilot,  and  began  the  navigation  of  the  Hooghly  River,  the 
westernmost  outlet  of  the  Ganges.  The  boat  was  hardly  moored 
off  Saugar  Island  when  the  southwest  monsoon  burst  upon  her. 
The  storm  became  a  cyclone — such  as  are  not  infrequent  in  the 
Bay  of  Bengal — and  the  Moira  was  dragged  from  her  moorings 
and  tossed  on  to  a  flooded  mud  bank  where,  poised  on  the  edge 
with  ten  feet  of  water  on  one  side  and  seventy  on  the  other,  she 
gradually  worked  for  herself  a  bed  in  the  clay.  With  the  dawn, 
it  was  determined  to  put  the  passengers  ashore  on  the  island. 
The  pilot  and  some  Indians  swam  to  a  large  tree  which  was  seen 
some  way  off,  and  to  this  made  fast  a  hawser,  by  which  all  were 
got  ashore.  They  made  their  way  to  a  small  village,  whose  in¬ 
habitants  refused  them  shelter,  and  failing  any  other  roof  over 
their  heads  they  took  refuge  in  the  village  temple.  Eventually 
news  of  the  shipwreck  reached  Calcutta,  boats  came  down  the 
Hooghly,  and  in  one  of  them  the  Duffs  travelled  the  hundred  miles 
up  river  to  Calcutta,  thus  completing  surely  as  adventurous  a 
journey  as  any  new  missionary  could  wish  to  have.  They  landed 
on  the  27th  of  May,  1830,  having  been  more  than  seven  months  on 
their  voyage  from  English  shores. 

His  Educational  Program  Has  William  Carey's  Sup¬ 
port.  ( Pp .  58-60,  67.) 

Duff  was  essentially  a  man  of  spiritual  ambition,  and  he  had 
come  to  India  intending  to  assail  the  very  system  of  Hinduism 
itself.  We  shall  discuss  later  his  knowledge  of  Hinduism  and  his 
attitude  towards  it ;  no  doubt  at  the  outset  of  his  career  he  vastly 
under-estimated  its  vitality  and  power.  Meanwhile  it  is  neces¬ 
sary  to  realize  what  it  was  that  he  was  trying  to  do.  He  saw 
around  him  devoted  men,  Iris  own  friends  some  of  them,  labouring 
with  unsparing  earnestness  according  to  a  method  which  seemed 
to  him  incomplete.  He  never  criticized  their  methods  in  them¬ 
selves.  He  cordially  admitted  the  validity  and  usefulness  of 
general  open-air  preaching,  and  vernacular  work,  but  he  did  not 
feel  that  his  own  work  should  be  established  along  these  lines. 
His  friends  were  engaged  on  a  direct  appeal  to  Hindus  to  re¬ 
nounce  their  faith ;  Duff  believed  he  saw  the  way  to  weaken 
and  in  the  end  destroy  Hinduism  itself.  As  he  put  it  himself, 
he  wanted  to  prepare  a  mine  which  should  one  day  explode  be¬ 
neath  the  very  citadel  of  Hinduism. 


11 


He  was  strongly  opposed  by  all  the  missionaries,  with  one 
illustrious  exception.  Towards  the  end  of  his  period  of  investiga¬ 
tion  he  went  out  to  Serampore  to  see  William  Carey,  then  near 
the  end  of  the  miraculous  career  by  which  he  had  added  an  im¬ 
perishable  chapter  to  the  history  of  Christian  missions.  As  the 
most  famous  of  Indian  missionaries  up  to  that  time  his  opinion 
was  obviously  of  the  highest  value  to  Duff,  but  he  was  in  addi¬ 
tion  a  great  educationist,  and  had  probably  more  claim  to  be 
heard  on  that  particular  issue  than  any  other  missionary  then 
in  India.  As  Duff,  in  all  the  vigour  of  his  young  manhood,  went 
up  the  long  flight  of  steps  that  lead  from  the  Hooghly  River  to 
the  College  at  Serampore,  the  aged  Carey  met  him  and  solemnly 
gave  him  his  blessing.  Together  they  talked  out  Duff’s  plans  in 
their  entirety,  and  Carey  heartily  approved  of  the  new  scheme 
the  Scotsman  was  planning,  and  urged  him  to  go  forward.  Duff 
returned  to  Calcutta  with  the  support  of  Carey  to  balance  against 
the  opposition  and  grave  disapproval  of  practically  all  the  mis¬ 
sionary  body  of  Calcutta. 

What  was  Duff’s  plan? 

Put  very  briefly  it  was  to  use  Christian  education,  carried 
eventually  to  the  highest  level,  and  given  through  the  medium 
of  English,  as  the  great  instrument  of  the  assault  upon  Hin¬ 
duism  and  of  the  presentation  of  Christianity.  The  choice  of  this 
policy  involved  not  one  but  two  critical  decisions.  The  first  was 
to  make  use  of  higher  education  as  a  missionary  instrument.  The 
second  was  to  give  that  higher  education  through  the  medium 
of  the  English  language.  It  is  one  measure  of  the  greatness 
of  Duff  that  a  method  which  is  now  universally  used  by  almost 
all  missions  in  India,  and  which  it  has  probably  never  occurred 
to  many  people  even  to  question,  should  have  been  conceived  and 
carried  through  by  this  one  man  at  the  very  outset  of  his 
career  .... 

Opposed  and  derided,  Duff  went  ahead.  The  choice  with 
which,  as  Dr.  Richter  has  said,  modern  Indian  missions  really 
began  was  made  within  a  few  weeks  of  his  arrival  in  India,  by  a 
young  man  of  twenty-four.  We  shall  see  in  ensuing  chapters  how 
his  plan  worked,  and  how  far-reaching  were  its  effects  upon  the 
policy  not  only  of  missions  but  of  the  Government  itself. 

Alexander  Duff’s  First  Converts.  ( Pp .  84-86.) 

The  first  convert  was  not  Banerjea,  but  Mohesh  Chunder 
Ghose,  one  of  the  Hindu  College  men,  who  had  for  long  been 
meditating  the  final  step.  In  his  confession  of  faith  he  explained 
how  he  had  at  every  stage  fought  against  Christianity,  and  when 


12 


intellectually  convinced  had  remained  unchanged  in  feeling.  As 
his  conscience  awakened  he  became  acutely  miserable,  and  then 
began  to  find  help  in  the  words  of  the  Bible — why  and  how  he 
could  not  say.  “In  spite  of  myself,”  he  said,  “I  became  a 
Christian.” 


This  was  in  August,  1832,  and  in  the  following  October 
Krishna  Mohan  Banerjea  was  baptized  His  path  had  been 
more  severely  intellectual  than  that  of  Mohesh  Chunder,  and  he 
had  gradually  fought  his  way  through  to  belief  in  the  Divinity 
of  Christ  and  the  Atonement.  He  was  a  man  of  massive  mind, 
destined  to  be  one  of  the  most  illustrious  of  Indian  Christians,  a 
fine  prince  of  the  Church.  In  December  of  the  same  year, 
Gopinath  Nundi  professed  his  faith  and  was  baptized,  like  Baner¬ 
jea,  in  the  class-room  where  all  the  disputations  had  taken  place. 
Every  pressure  was  put  on  him  by  his  family  and  his  caste,  but 
without  avail.  Even  the  terrible  grief  of  his  Hindu  mother — 
surely  the  most  grievous  pain  any  Indian  Christian  has  to  bear 
— did  not  change  his  determination  to  be  a  professed  Christian. 
The  fourth  convert  was  Anando  Chand  Mozumdar,  one  of  Duff’s 
own  pupils  in  the  school,  and  one  of  the  first  to  be  moved  by 
his  Bible  teaching.  He  was  baptized  in  April,  1833. 

These  four  men  were  the  firstf ruits  of  Duff ’s  labours  in  India, 
and  their  profession  of  Christian  faith  the  outcome  of  those 
dramatic  early  years.  Hindu  thought  and  life  had  been  shaken 
to  the  foundations,  new  influences  had  been  set  at  work  which 
would  take  long  to  quench,  but  these  four  had  against  all  opposi¬ 
tion,  risking  life  itself  and  all  that  makes  life  glad,  in  the  face  of 
all  men  confessed  their  faith  in  Jesus  Christ. 


If  the  conversion  of  these  men  meant  much  to  Duff,  it  meant 
much  also  to  India.  Dr.  Richter,  speaking  of  Duff  's  early  con¬ 
verts  savs : 


“What  remarkable  personalities,  what  pillars  in  the  Indian 
Church  are  included  among  them!  ....  Krishna  Mohan  Baner¬ 
jea,  Gopinath  Nundi,  Mohesh  Chunder  Ghose,  Anando  Chand 
Mozumdar  ....  are  the  glittering  stars  in  the  firmament  of 
the  Indian  Christian  world.  It  was  something  wholly  new  for 
North  India  no  longer  to  see  orphan  children  picked  up  any¬ 
where,  outcastes,  beggars  and  cripples  becoming  members  of  the 
Christian  Church,  but  in  their  stead  scions  of  the  noblest  houses 
....  The  present  writer  whilst  at  Calcutta  had  an  opportunity 
of  conversing  with  several  members  of  these  distinguished  fami¬ 
lies,  both  Christian  and  heathen,  concerning  the  marvellous  pe¬ 
riod  of  Duff’s  activity.  They  were  unanimous  in  asserting  it  to 
be  a  time  wholly  unique;  they  stated  that  in  the  highest  circles 
Christianity  became  the  subject  of  the  most  animated  and  most 


13 


interested  discussion ;  that  every  family  had  to  face  the  con¬ 
version  of  its  most  able  and  gifted  members,  and  that  an  excite¬ 
ment  and  a  tremor  swept  through  Hindu  society  such  as  had 
never  been  experienced  before — nor  since.” 

Duff's  Stand  is  Sustained.  ( Pp .  91-92 ,  98-99.) 

On  one  point  the  Orientalists  and  the  Anglicists  did  not 
differ.  Both  agreed  that  for  the  education  of  the  masses  of  the 
people  only  one  medium  was  possible,  the  vernacular.  But  for 
either  English  culture  or  classical  oriental  culture,  the  vernacu¬ 
lars  as  they  stood  were  impossible  as  media  of  instruction.  They 
contained  almost  no  literature.  Those  who  would  teach  the  people 
must  themselves  first  be  taught,  and  having  been  taught,  apply 
themselves  to  the  creation  and  enrichment  of  a  vernacular  litera¬ 
ture.  On  this  all  were  agreed,  but  there  agreement  ended. 
One  party  held  to  the  ancient  studies,  the  other  to  English  cul¬ 
ture  ;  one  believed  that  in  the  Sanskrit  and  Arabic  classics,  with 
perhaps  some  admixture  of  European  ideas,  existed  all  that  India 
needed  for  her  people’s  education,  the  other  that  European  cul¬ 
ture,  given  necessarily  through  the  medium  of  English  contained 
not  Western  truth,  but  truth,  and  that  it  should  not  be  denied 
to  India. 

The  struggle  was  not  merely  between  two  sections  of  a  com¬ 
mittee.  The  Indian  public  was  itself  divided.  On  the  one  hand 
there  were  the  men  who  had  been  trained  in  the  oriental  learning, 
whose  livelihood  (it  is  not  unfair  to  say)  depended  upon  the  con¬ 
tinuance  of  Government  support  of  that  learning,  and  who  natu¬ 
rally  shrank  from  the  prospect  of  having  snatched  from  them 
the  one  form  of  activity  for  which  they  had  been  trained.  A 
vested  interest  had  been  created.  On  the  other  hand,  the  evidence 
was  strong  and  stronger  every  year  that  multitudes  of  Indians 
desired  English  learning.  There  was  the  Hindu  College,  from 
first  to  last  the  fruit  of  Indian  initiative,  where,  on  the  admission 
of  the  committee  itself,  “a  command  of  the  English  language  and 
a  familiarity  with  its  literature  and  science  have  been  acquired 
to  an  extent  rarely  equalled  by  any  school  in  Europe.  A  taste 
for  English  has  been  widely  disseminated,  and  independent 
schools,  conducted  by  young  men  reared  in  the  Hindu  College, 
are  springing  up  in  every  direction.”  There  was  the  amazing 
success  which  had  attended  Duff’s  educational  experiment, 
success  all  the  more  astonishing  when  we  consider  the  handicap 
to  which,  so  far  at  least  as  popularity  went,  he  subjected  himself 
by  his  Christian  teaching  and  evangelistic  zeal.  .  .  . 

The  Governor-General,  Lord  William  Bentinck,  took  action. 
Of  the  Resolution  of  Government  dated  March  7th,  1835,  Sir 


14 


Charles  Trevelyan  prophesied  that  “although  homely  in  its 
words,  it  will  be  mighty  in  its  effects  long  after  we  are  moulder¬ 
ing  in  the  dust.”  Briefly  the  Resolution  stated:  that  the  great 
object  of  the  British  Government  in  India  ought  to  be  the  pro¬ 
motion  of  European  literature  and  science  and  that,  although 
no  institutions  of  oriental  learning  for  which  a  demand  still 
existed  should  be  closed,  the  system  of  subsidizing  students  in 
these  schools  and  colleges  should  be  discontinued,  public  expen¬ 
diture  on  the  printing  of  oriental  books  be  immediately  stopped 
and  the  number  of  professors  of  oriental  studies  gradually  re¬ 
duced.  The  funds  thus  released  were  to  be  henceforth  employed 
in  promoting  modern  European  education  through  the  medium 
of  the  English  language. 

This  justly  memorable  Resolution  gave  legislative  sanction 
to  the  plan  which  Duff  and  Trevelyan  (who  became  great 
friends)  in  their  respective  spheres  had  urged,  and  which  Duff 
had  already  tested  by  the  touchstone  of  experience.  One  does  not 
wish  to  claim  too  much  for  Duff,  any  more  than  for  Macaulay, 
but  there  can  be  little  doubt  that  his  work  and  his  arguments 
were  a  most  important  factor  in  determining  the  issue. 


Advocacy  of  Western  Medical  Science.  ( Pp .  99-100.) 

It  is  in  connection  with  the  establishment  of  a  medical  college 
in  Calcutta  on  Western  lines  that  Duff’s  influence  is  perhaps  most 
clearly  seen.  Medical  training  existed  in  two  forms  at  this  time 
in  Calcutta.  At  the  Sanskrit  and  Arabic  Colleges  classes  were 
held  in  medicine,  where,  says  Trevelyan,  “the  systems  of  Galen 
and  Hippocrates,  and  of  the  Shastras,  with  the  addition  of  a  few 
scraps  of  European  medical  science,  were  taught.”  There  was 
also  a  medical  institution  begun  by  Government  in  1822  where, 
through  the  medium  of  Hindustani,  a  smattering  of  Western 
medical  science  was  given,  dissection  of  the  lower  animals  prac¬ 
tised,  and  where  a  few  tracts  printed  in  Hindustani  were  the 
total  medical  library  of  the  students.  Lord  William  Bentinck 
conceived  the  plan  of  raising  up  in  India  a  medical  profession 
trained  in  modern  medicine,  and  a  commission  was  appointed 
to  enquire  into  the  possibility  of  the  scheme.  The  great  obstacle 
was  the  prohibition,  real  or  supposed,  of  the  Hindu  Shastras, 
against  touching  a  dead  body  for  anatomical  purposes.  It  was 
confidently  held  by  the  Orientalists  that  dissection  would  never 
be  practised  by  Hindus,  and  that  it  was  useless  to  contemplate  it. 
No  one  held  this  more  strongly  than  the  head  of  the  Government 
medical  institution.  It  appears  from  the  evidence  of  Trevelyan 
and  others  that  it  was  Duff  who  turned  the  scale.  The  commis¬ 
sion  visited  his  college,  and  interviewed  his  students  as  well  as 


15 


himself.  The  students  stated  with  great  candour  that  while  it 
might  be  true  that  the  Shastras  forbade  the  touching  of  a  dead 
body,  they  had  so  far  imbibed  a  new  point  of  view  in  their  Euro¬ 
pean  studies  that  they  regarded  such  prohibition  with  indiffer¬ 
ence,  and  that  if  on  other  grounds  they  desired  to  take  up  the 
medical  profession,  they  would  not  be  deterred  by  the  scruples  of 
religious  traditionalism.  Duff  himself  “to  whom,”  says  Trevel¬ 
yan,  “the  cause  of  sound  learning  and  true  religion  in  the  East 
is  deeply  indebted,  ’  ’  reiterated  with  much  force  before  the  com¬ 
mission  his  view  that  Indian  students  could  learn  all  that  Euro¬ 
peans  could  learn  through  the  medium  of  English,  and  that 
whatever  could  be  said  for  the  teaching  of  the  humanities  through 
the  Indian  classical  tongues,  nothing  whatever  was  to  be  said  for 
so  teaching  science.  Lord  William  Bentinck  further  consulted  or¬ 
thodox  Hindu  pundits,  who  stated  that  while  the  Shastras  for¬ 
bade  the  touching  of  a  dead  body,  there  was  no  specific  prohibi¬ 
tion  of  touching  it  for  anatomical  purposes. 

In  June  1835  the  new  Medical  College  in  Calcutta  was 
opened.  It  is  now  perhaps  the  largest  in  the  world,  and  it  is 
not  too  much  to  say  that  in  great  measure  it  owes  its  inception 
to  Duff,  “to  whom,”  said  the  Lieutenant-Governor  of  the  Punjab 
in  1899  at  the  Lahore  Medical  College,  “we  are  indebted,  be¬ 
cause  he  was  the  pioneer  in  the  efforts  to  show  that  the  medical 
profession  was  compatible  with  the  highest  ideas  of  caste.” 

Advocacy  of  Educational  Opportunities  for  India  s 
Womanhood.  ( Pp .  123-125.) 

In  another  direction  Duff  showed  his  extraordinary  grasp 
of  the  essential  factors  in  the  Indian  world  of  his  day.  It  is  one 
of  his  claims  to  fame  that  throughout  his  whole  career  he  saw 
and  emphasized  the  importance  of  the  education  of  women,  and 
not  only  saw  it  but  laboured  for  it.  Even  today  the  education 
of  women  and  girls  is  one  of  the  causes  most  urgent  in  the  eyes 
of  Indian  social  reformers,  and  in  Duff’s  day  almost  nothing  had 
been  done  to  promote  it.  The  seclusion  of  women — not  by  any 
means  universal  in  India,  but  common  in  the  high  castes  and 
among  Mohammedans — and  still  more  the  practice  of  very  early 
marriage  made  the  education  of  girls  extremely  difficult,  and 
created  a  solid  body  of  conservative  opinion  which  was  utterly 
opposed  to  it.  Duff  realized  the  unique  importance  of  the  ques¬ 
tion.  There  can  indeed  be  no  stable  social  progress  apart  from 
the  education  of  women,  because  without  them  the  life  of  the 
family  and  the  home,  in  which  all  true  progress  is  ultimately  con¬ 
served,  is  not  touched.  Moreover,  Duff  saw  a  generation  of  edu- 


16 


cated  men  growing  up  in  Bengal  and  other  parts  of  India 
who  would  demand  educated  wives,  and  in  whom  the  fruits  of 
education  would  largely  disappear  if  in  their  homes  and  in  the 
intimate  relationship  of  marriage  they  lived  entirely  without  the 
companionship  of  educated  minds.  His  own  policy  was  twofold. 
He  held  that  the  movement  for  male  education  was  in  reality 
a  movement  for  female  education  also,  because,  as  has  just  been 
argued,  it  would  create  in  time  an  irresistible  demand  among 
men  for  educated  wives.  This  he  held  to  be  the  fundamental 
reality  of  the  situation.  Meanwhile,  pending  the  appearance  of 
the  demand  which  he  confidently  (and  rightly)  predicted,  steps 
must  be  taken  to  equip  from  among  such  women  and  girls  as 
could  even  now  be  got  to  offer  themselves  for  education,  an  ade¬ 
quate  number  of  teachers,  who  should  be  ready  when  the  demand 
for  female  education  became  strong  and  widespread. 

Accordingly  Duff  saw  that  the  refuge  for  orphan  girls,  begun 
in  Calcutta  some  years  before,  was  developed  into  an  efficient 
school ;  and  he  gave  his  personal  help  to  every  scheme  and  every 
society  which  was  addressed  to  this  great  and  crying  need.  In 
addition  he  used  his  influence,  which  was  great  in  his  earliest 
years  as  a  missionary  and  grew  stronger  as  he  became  a  recog¬ 
nized  element  in  Bengal  life,  to  urge  Government  to  remove  legal 
restrictions  on  the  freedom  of  women.  He  fought  infant  betrothal 
and  early  marriage,  and  the  prohibition  of  the  re-marriage  of 
widows,  and  he  rejoiced  to  find,  in  1842,  ‘'a  secret  society  among 
the  educated  Hindus  for  privately  instructing  their  young  daugh¬ 
ters  and  other  female  relatives. 7  7 

Secures  the  Adoption  of  the  “Grant -in- Aid”  System 
( Pp .  157-159 , 160.) 

It  will  be  recollected  that  twenty  years  before,  the  struggle 
had  been  over  the  nature  of  the  education  to  which  public  money 
should  be  devoted.  That  battle  had  been  won  by  Macaulay, 
Trevelyan  and  Duff,  and  English  education  got  its  chance.  But 
the  resources  of  Go^rnment  had  so  far  been  devoted  only  to  the 
maintenance  of  Government  educational  institutions,  and  it  had 
long  been  Duff’s  desire  to  see  a  reform  inaugurated  whereby  the 
subsidy  of  Government  should  be  available,  on  an  equitable  sys¬ 
tem,  for  the  whole  educational  fabric  of  the  country.  This  idea 
he  urged  incessantly  upon  the  authorities  in  London,  interviewing 
the  members  of  Parliament  and  Ministers  most  interested  in 
India,  and  giving  evidence  and  answering  cross-examination  be¬ 
fore  the  Select  Committee  of  the  House  of  Lords  on  Indian 
questions.  .  .  . 


17 


The  new  India  Bill  was  introduced  by  Sir  Charles  Wood 
(later  Lord  Halifax)  in  a  speech  of  the  highest  ability.  Duff 
and  Marshman  then  placed  their  educational  views  as  given  in 
evidence  before  the  Committee,  in  a  memorandum  for  Govern¬ 
ment,  and  this  was  virtually  embodied  in  a  state  paper  sent  to 
India  (where  Lord  Dalhousie  was  now  Governor-General)  as  the 
famous  Education  Dispatch  in  1854. 

In  several  points  this  Dispatch  reflects  the  views  of  Duff. 
Its  emphasis  on  the  education  of  women  owed  something  to  him, 
and  he  had  some  share  in  the  plans  of  the  three  Universities  of 
Calcutta,  Bombay  and  Madras,  which  were  founded  as  the  result 
of  the  Dispatch,  on  the  model  of  London  University.  The  re¬ 
marks  of  the  Dispatch  about  vernacular  education  are  worth 
quoting,  for  they  show  how  consistently  both  the  1835  and  the 
1854  reforms  held  before  them  the  importance  of  the  cultivation 
of  the  vernacular.  .  .  . 

In  many  ways  the  “grant-in-aid”  system  begun  by  this  Dis¬ 
patch  is  the  most  notable  thing  about  it,  and  to  the  present  day 
this  has  been  the  main  principle  on  which  Government  has 
financed  education  in  India.  It  was  laid  down  that  public 
moneys  were  to  be  devoted  not  only  to  the  maintenance  of  Gov¬ 
ernment  schools  and  colleges,  but  to  the  assistance  of  institutions 
begun  and  maintained  by  private  bodies,  whether  Hindu,  Mo¬ 
hammedan  or  Christian,  whether  indigenous  or  foreign.  The 
policy  of  Government  was  to  followT  the  double  line  of  maintain¬ 
ing  at  as  high  a  standard  as  possible,  out  of  public  moneys,  a  cer¬ 
tain  number  of  its  own  institutions,  and  also  of  aiding  private 
enterprise,  and  thereby  calling  private  enterprise  into  being. 

The  1854  Dispatch  has  very  justly  been  called  the  educational 
charter  of  India,  and  it  exhibits  a  foresight  and  grasp  of  the 
exigencies  of  the  time  which  deserve  the  highest  admiration. 
It  enabled  the  amount  of  education  in  India  to  be  very  greatly 
increased,  it  gave  support  to  all  those  groups  in  Indian  society 
which  desired  to  further  and  develop  private  educational  under¬ 
takings.  To  this  policy  is  largely  due  the  growth  of  missionary 
education  to  its  present  dimensions,  and  if  tfie  present  day  calls 
for  revision  and  reform  of  the  system  of  Christian  education  in 
India,  and  of  education  in  India  as  a  whole,  it  is  in  no  sense  a 
reflection  upon  the  framers  of  this  Dispatch. 

* 

Failing  Strength  and  Death.  (Pp.  194-195 ,  195-196 .) 

On  April  26th,  1876,  Duff  completed  the  seventieth  year  of 
his  life.  Not  long  afterwards  he  met  with  a  serious  accident  in 
his  library.  He  fell  from  a  considerable  height  to  the  floor,  and 


18 


severely  gashed  his  head,  so  that  he  was  confined  to  his  bedroom 
for  some  weeks.  He  seemed  to  get  well,  and  was  actually  able  to 
carry  out  his  lecture  and  other  engagements  during  the  winter  of 
1876-77,  but  early  in  March  of  the  latter  year  he  found  himself 
troubled  by  a  tumour  near  the  right  ear,  and  the  malady  would 
not  leave  him  but  rather  grew  steadily  worse.  He  had  to  abandon 
the  Assembly  of  that  year,  and  also  the  meeting  of  the  newly- 
founded  Alliance  of  all  the  Presbyterian  Churches.  In  the  hope 
of  regaining  health,  he  went  to  Patterdale  in  the  English  Lakes, 
an  old  and  beloved  resort  of  his,  and  later  went  abroad  to  Neuen- 
ahr.  He  gained  nothing  in  either  place;  jaundice  seized  him  and 
established  hold  of  his  system.  He  was  got  back  with  difficulty  to 
Edinburgh,  and  then  taken  in  the  autumn  to  Sidmouth  in  Devon¬ 
shire,  to  enjoy  the  gentler  winter  there.  But  it  was  plain  to  all 
his  friends  that  he  had  not  long  to  live.  Plis  son  was  telegraphed 
for  and  arrived  from  Calcutta  in  time  to  see  his  father.  His  most 
intimate  friends  and  relatives  gathered  round  him,  and  in  these 
last  days  he  gave  to  them  in  halting  and  painful  conversation 
some  of  the  most  private  and  precious  of  the  secrets  whereby 
he  lived.  .  .  . 

He  was  able  to  give  instructions  about  the  sending  of  gifts  to 
his  friends,  choosing  for  some  of  them  particular  volumes  from 
his  library.  Numerous  messages  of  love  and  sympathy  came  from 
many  of  those  who  in  India  or  Scotland  had  worked  with  him, 
and  he  gained  enough  strength  for  a  while  to  be  able  to  reply  to 
them.  Each  day,  however,  he  grew  steadily  weaker,  and  on  the 
12th  February,  1878,  he  passed  very  peacefully  away,  in  the 
seventy-second  year  of  bis  age. 

The  body  was  taken  to  Edinburgh,  where  round  the  grave  of 
the  missionary  there  gathered  together  a  marvelous  assembly. 
All  the  Churches  were  represented  there,  all  the  missionary  soci¬ 
eties,  the  Universities,  the  learned  societies,  and  a  great  host  of 
the  godly  humble  folk  who  knew  that  a  great  Christian  and  a 
great  Scotsman  was  being  laid  to  his  rest.  Innumerable  tributes 
were  paid  to  him  in  the  press,  and  in  pulpits  and  on  platforms 
all  over  the  land. 


19 


SERIES  OF  PROGRAMS  NOW  AVAILABLE 


Course  Number  One 

JAMES  CHALMERS,  Martyr  of  New  Guinea 

JAMES  GILMOUR,  Pioneer  in  Mongolia 

WILFRED  T.  GRENFEL,  Knight-Errant  of  the  North 

ADONIRAM  JUDSON,  Herald  of  the  Cross  in  Burma 

ION  IvEITH-FALCONER,  Defender  of  the  Faith  in  Arabia 

DAVID  LIVINGSTONE,  Africa’s  Pathfinder  and  Emancipator 

ALEXANDER  M.  MACKAY,  Uganda’s  White  Man  of  Work 

HENRY  MARTYN,  Persia’s  Man  of  God 

ROBERT  MORRISON,  Protestant  Pioneer  in  China 

JOHN  G.  PATON,  King  of  the  Cannibals 

MARY  SLESSOR,  The  White  Queen  of  Calabar 

MARCUS  WHITMAN,  Hero  of  the  Oregon  Country 

Course  Number  Two 

CAPTAIN  LUKE  BICKEL,  Master  Mariner  of  the  Inland  Sea 
WILLIAM  CAREY,  Founder  of  Modern  Missions 
ALEXANDER  DUFF,  India’s  Educational  Pioneer 
MARY  PORTER  GAMEWELL,  Heroine  of  the  Boxer  Rebellion 
FRANK  HIGGINS,  Sky  Pilot  of  the  Lumbermen 
RAYMUND  LULL,  First  Missionary  to  the  Moslems 
GEORGE  L.  MACKAY,  Pioneer  Missionary  in  Formosa 
JOHN  K.  MACKENZIE,  The  Beloved  Physician  of  Tientsin 
ROBERT  MOFFAT,  Friend  of  the  African 

JOHN  COLERIDGE  PATTESON,  Martyr  Bishop  of  the  South 

Seas 

J.  HUDSON  TAYLOR,  Founder  of  the  China  Inland  Mission 
JOHN  WILLIAMS,  Shipbuilder  in  the  South  Seas 


No.  312-M.E.-I-1M-May,  1926 


20 


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